This fine book should be read not just by specialists in the economic history of Latin America. The more general reader will see useful applications of many of the theories of modern international finance, including empirical work showing that gold flows were consistent with the monetary...

Using annual data for Colombia over the last 30 years, we test competing theories that explain macroeconomic fluctuations: the neoclassical synthesis, which posits that in the presence of temporary price rigidity, an unanticipated monetary expansion produces output gains that erode over time...